Mid Planning Blog

For out unit plan we will be focusing on electricity (circuits and electronics) in 8th grade science. We will be planning 15 collaborative lessons in the unit plan. We will be using a variety of teaching styles and approaches for both the classroom and the media center. The demographics of the school where the unit plan is created for is made up of mostly African American students with a few Hispanic and mixed ethnically. Only 1% of the students population is considered ESL. Most students are below grade level in ability. We will address this by using a simpler web quest than recommended for the grade and by including additional instruction when needed. For all instances of differentiated learning included in the curriculum textbook, we will choose the below lever activity for the whole class.

A basic outline of the lessons is listed below.

1. Notes on section 1 (Charge needs a continuous path to flow)
a. Topics – Parts of a circuit, open and closed circuits
b. Complete workbook page for this section
2. Open and closed circuit diagrams
a. Students will draw and label a diagram of both an open circuit and a closed circuit.
3. Notes on section 2 (Circuits make electric currents useful)
a. Topics – Parallel and Series Circuits
b. Complete workbook page for this section
4. Human Circuits
a. Students will use string (to represent wire) and labels to simulate what a series and parallel circuit looks like. Each group will have 4 members (one battery and three light bulbs).
b. Students will complete a packet at the end of the simulation.
5. Media Center Research
a. Simulations on parallel and series circuits.
6. Circuits Lab
a. Students will work in groups to create a model of a working parallel circuit and working series circuit.
b. Materials include wire, batteries, switches and light bulbs from the science kit.
c. Students must demonstrate the working circuits for credit.
7. Notes on section 3 (Electricity is based on circuits)
a. Topics – Binary and Digital Coding, Circuit Boards
b. Complete workbook page for this section.
8. Binary Code Designs
a. Students will create a design on grid paper and code using 0’s to represent empty boxes and 1’s to represent colored boxes.
9. Binary Code Designs #2
a. Students will receive another student’s code in order to recreate the original design.
10. Chapter Review
11. Chapter Test
12. Webquest and Unit Project
13. Webquest and Unit Project
14. Webquest and Unit Project
15. Webquest and Unit Project


We are in the process of modifying and creating the full lessons to be placed on our wiki. I feel that we have made great progress on the project.